EAST Initiative's new headquarters encompasses 13,900-SF off Ranch Boulevard in west Little Rock.
EAST Initiative unveiled its new west Little Rock location on Thursday afternoon ahead of a Thursday night visit from Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
EAST is a nonprofit, educational model based in Little Rock that partners with schools to provide project-based, service-oriented programs with a focus on high-end technology. EAST students work on projects with organizations like NASA and Esri, a GIS technology provider based in Redlands, California.
The 13,900-SF facility is a former State Farm claims center converted by Clark Contractors of Little Rock and Modus Studio Architecture of Fayetteville. It is located across Ranch Boulevard from its former home, which was seperated into three sites within a strip center on Ranch Drive.
EAST paid $1.6 million for the building and about $800,000 to renovate it.
The new facility is being furnished and equipped with the latest in high-end technology thanks to recent grants from the Arkansas Department of Education of more than $240,000 and matching $35,000 grants from AT&T Arkansas and the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
EAST president and CEO Matt Dozier said the move represents an improvement in virtually every aspect of what EAST does and can offer students. EAST didn’t gain much in square footage but the new facility is much more functional, he said.
“We now have four different areas for training,” he said. “Kids need to have breathable space and feel apart of something exciting and energetic.”
EAST, which stands for Environmental and Spacial Technology, was launched in 1996 at Greenbrier High School and hosts more than 400 students in roughly 100 technical training sessions annually. It operates 221 programs in five states — Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
Most EAST students are in high school but the program serves students from third grade through college.
EAST schools are equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms with workstations that provide servers, software and accessories; GPS/GIS mapping tools; architectural and CAD design software; 3-D animation suites, virtual reality development tools and more.
EAST students also have after-school access to the STEAM Lab at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub in downtown North Little Rock. The STEAM Lab (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) is a partnership between EAST and the Hub.
More than 175,000 students have participated in EAST programs since its launch in 1996, and roughly 2,400 students and program facilitators annually attend the national EAST conference, this year scheduled for March 17-19 in Hot Springs.
EAST board chairman Jerry Damerow said the program represents a “tremendous competitive advantage” for Arkansas.
“These students are getting a leg up on their future,” he said. “They learn organization, teamwork and about giving back to their communities. These kids are our future business leaders.”
Dozier said the facility can serve as a community resource for west Little Rock and will be set up to host events and other functions.
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